GUJRAT, Nov 15: Two nominated accused in the murder case of Waqar Shah of Qulewal Syedan, many other POs and criminals had escaped before or during the police raids at the outhouses of former adviser to CM Naeem Raza owing to leakage of information by some departmental ‘black sheep’, sources told Dawn on Wednesday.

Kakrali police had registered two cases against Naeem Raza and his brother Shahid Raza for harbouring criminals.

A police handout revealed that eight nominated accused, including Ashraf, Anar, Iqbal, Asif, Boota, Pervaiz Khalid, Sajid Manzoor and Madassar Iqbal had snatched Rs1,150 and a motorcycle (LOH-1888) from Sajjad of Malki village near Sohal on Sunday night.

It said Sajjad had recognised all the accused because they had been living since long at the outhouse of Naeem Raza in Kotla Arab Ali Khan. Kakrali police had registered a dacoity case (No 334).

Gujrat DPO Syed Ahsan Mehboob had constituted a raiding team soon after the dacoity incident and made SP Mahmoodul Hasan Qureshi its in-charge.

In the meanwhile, Gujjar Khan SHO Karim Nawaz had also reached Kotla to investigate a case (No 513) in which Waqar Shah alias Qari Shah was murdered.

The SHO suspected that murderers of Waqar Shah were also hiding at the outhouse of Naeem Raza. The Gujjar Khan police also joined a Gujrat team and conducted a joint raid at the outhouse.

The handout said after a brief shootout, Arshad, Nadeem, Shakeel, Ibrar and Madassar Subhani were arrested along with arms.

The Kakrali police had registered a case (No 335) against the five arrested accused and Naeem Raza and Shahid Raza on the complaint of SHO Raja Younas.

The handout said a joint team of Gujrat, Gujjar Khan and Bhimber (AJK) conducted the second raid at the outhouse of Naeem Raza and Shahid Raza at Kalianwala near Bhago Chak.

There an encounter took place, which left a hired assassin, Sajid Manzoor, dead while seven outlaws were arrested along with weapons.

They were identified as Sagheer Dhola, Ashraf, Anar, Iqbal, Asif, Boota and Pervaiz Khalid. One of the arrested, Sagheer Dhola, was wanted by Lalamusa Saddar police in the murder case of ex-MNA Syed Manzoor Shah.

Upon this a case (No 336) was lodged with Kakrali police against the seven arrested accused and Naeem Raza and Shahid Raza on the complaint of DSP (headquarters) Siddique Awan.

In cases No 335 and 336, Naeem Raza and Shahid Raza had been nominated for sheltering criminals.

Requesting anonymity, the sources said police high-ups had been receiving information that more than 100 POs and criminals were permanently living at the two outhouses.

They said the DPO had directed all the team members to hand over their cell phones to him before the start of the operation owing to possibility of leak of information to the Razas.

They said the police had arrested only 12 men while more than 70 beds were found from the two outhouses. They said warmth of the beds clearly indicated that the men had recently gone.

The sources said the arrested accused during interrogation had disclosed that constable Waqar Shah and his brother Jawad Shah of Keeranwala, the nominated accused in the murder case of Qari Shah, were allegedly present at the outhouse but they left the place before the raid.

They quoted the arrested men as saying to police that many other criminals had slipped some time before or during the raid.

The possibility of some police informer could not be ruled out, they added.